Numbering or marking machine.



Affva PATENTED JAN. 28, 1908.

G. H. LANG. NUMBERING OR MARKING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 14, 1907.

TA/ESSES.

T 0 all wlz om it may concern:

GEORGE HI LANG, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

NUMBERING OB MARKING MAGEINE;

Specification of Letters iatent.

Application filed may 14 1907c Serial No. 373-579.

Patented Jan. 28, 1908.

Be it known that I, Gnonon l1. LANG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, county of Suffolk, and State of itijissachusotts, have invented an Improvement in' bhnnbering or Marking Machines, of which the following deseription, in connection with the accompanying drawing, specification, like letters on the drawing representing like parts.

This invention relates to numbering or marking machines of that type com 'irismg a nun'ibering head having a plurality of ad justing type-disks therein which can be ad- JUStG-(l mdepemlently to make any des red combination of letters, numbers or other dis-- tinguishing marl-Ls. A numbering machine of this general type is shown and described in my co-pending application Se. No.348,781, filed December 20, 1906.

One of the objects ot'my present invention is to provide a novel means for positively valining the. type-disks after 1 her have been set so that when the mark is printed by the machine the clmracters made by the various type-disks will be inaccurate alinement with each other; and another object is to provide a device. which not onl alines the type-disks prior to the printing operation, but also positivclylocks them from movement during the printing operation so that it will be impossible to disarrange them after they have been set; and still another object of the invention is to providea novel arrangement of the ty )edisks for printing letters, numbers and other characters.

ln order to illustrate my invention 1 have chosen herein to show it as embodied in a numbering nnichine'snch as shown in my above-intuitioned vii-pending application although i wish it understood that the inven tion maybeembodiedin numberingmachines having a dill'erent construction l'rom that shown in my said application.

l will iil'.\l de cribe one liHlHHllllltlli ol' my invention and-then point out the novel leatures therol'in the appended claims.

In the drawings, l i ';nre l is a longitudinal sectional view through a marking machine similar to thatshown in in eta-pending application but having Hl improvements applied thereto; Fig. l is a detail ol the zilillintf viee. Fig, 3 shows the arrangementof type on the type disk.

disks 4 which are rotatably mounted-"on the shaft 14 carried by the head but which project slightly below the head. The head is mounted on a vibrating arm 5' which is pivoted to the frame at 7 and which is operated by crank-disk 9 that is connected to said arm by the link-8. Said crank-disk is .driven by a. gear 10 which meshes with and is driven b a gear 11 carried by the main shaft 38. he frame 2 carries the platen-or bed 12 on which the material to be marked is placed and'toward which the type head moves as the arm 5 vibrates.

The ty )e-disks 4 are adjtistedby means of seginenta gears 17 mdunted on a shaft 18 carried by the head and meshing with pinions or gears 16 rigid with thety pe-disksl Each segmental gear 17 has a thumb-piece 21 pr0- jecting through a slot in the numbering head and 'afl'o'rding means by which the se mental gears and type-disks may be adjuste The parts thus far described are or may be all as shown. in m co -pending application and form no part 0 my present invention.

In order to properly mark the goods it is essential that the type-disks be pro erly alincd after having been adjusted, for ii any type-disk is out of position the mark rinted thereby will not be in alinement wlth the marks printed by the other type disks, and

above, my invention aims to provide a novel device for accnratel positioning the typedisks so as to aline t e operative type thereon thereby preventin an inaccurate marking, which device W11 0. positivel lock the type-disks against movement during the printing operation.

in the present embodiment of 'my invention the type-disks are alined by an aliner A0 whieh is mounted on'a yoke-shaped arm 41 that is pivoted to the arm 5, as at 42, and is adapted to swing toward and from the typedisks as the arm 5 vibrates. Each disk is provided with the aliner-receiving grooves or notches 43' situated between the adjacent type 15,:and in the present embodiment -of the invention these notches or grooves are V-shaped to correspond to the V-shape of the aliner 40.

For securing the movement of the aliner toward and from the type-disks I have shown a link 45 which is pivoted atone end to the 'yoked arm 41 and at the other endhas a pivotal connection with the standard 36, the

. arrangement of the link 45 being'suchthat as the outer end of the vibrating arm moves downward, the yoke 41 is swung forward to bring the aliner against the typedisks, as shown in dotted lines Fi 1. During this forward movement of t e aliner it enters the notches 43 in the disk and thus positively locks the disks against movement when the numbering head is in its lowered position and while said type-disks are makmg the impression on the material. If the type-disks-are not accurately adjusted the V-sha e of the aliner, by engaging the V- shape recesses or-notches in the type-disks,

serves to properly aline them so that when the impression is made all type are absolutelyin alinement.

II have'herein shown the link 45 as having a sliding pivotal connection with'the standard 36 so'that in case any type-disk ha received the pin 47 on which the link 45 hold the aliner in its forward position, as

is pivoted.

44 is a spring which is scured at one end to the arm 5 and at the other end to'the link 45. The tension of this spring is sufficient to shown in Fig. 1, with the'pin 47 against the right-hand end of the slot 46 and to maintam .the link in this alinin of the type-dis If, however, a t peisk happens to be set so that the a iner will strike squarely on one of .the type durin the printing operation, said sp will a low the aliner to yield rearwardly an thus prevent either breakage of the parts or injury to the type. If however, the typedisks are adjusted a proximately in the proper position the a 'm'er will perfect the proper alinement theretf-and lock them in position while the impression is being made. In the machine shown in my copending application, a springprs'ssed pawl is shown for holding the ty (2- isks in their adjusted position. One d ieulty with this arran ement is that the friction of the pawl on t e gears of the type-disks makes it hard to.

adjust said disks. In my present invention I have obviated the necessity for these spring-pressed pawls by the combined aliner. and ock-ing device herein shown, but in order to hssist in a proximately positioning the type-disks as't ey are adjusted and to frictionally hold each type-disk when adjusted ULtil it is locked by the aliner, I have shown a plurality of friction devices 50, one for each of the gears 17, and each adapted to engage the, toothed portion of the gear.

osition during the' being unduly large These friction devices are preferably made of s ring metal and are secured to the casing of t 1e head 3, and each bears against the teeth of the corresponding gear 17. The friction of. the friction devices 50 is just sufficient to hold the gears in any adjusted position, but I not sufiicient to'prevent the free and easy adjustment of the'disks.

In making my thegears 16 wit device I pro ose to make as many teet as there are type on the type-disk and therefore the teeth on the gear 17 will be so s aced that the advancin of each'gear the stance of one tooth wi type-disk one step. The friction of the frie tion devices 50 is such that when the gears 17 are adjusted the passing of the teeth over 'v certain type-disks for marking letters and other type-disks for markin numbers or othercharacters. Insomemar gmachines it has been proposed to arrange the typedisks .with the letters of the alphabet in can'- advance the correspondingof articles such as the;

secutive order divided between two adjacent type-disks. The difiiculty of this arrangement, however, is thatonly .a limited number of combinations of letters can be secured because of the fact that the alphabet is divided between two type-disks on. -the"- second of which there are other characters than the remaining letters of the al habet.

In order to provide a printifi ead in which any desired combination of tters'for initials can be produced, I propose to ,use a' plurality, sa two or three, t each of whic all the letters of t e alphabet are found and to emfiloy a plurality of other type-disks which wi have the di 'ts the're on. As shown in Fi 3 wherein ve of the type-disks are deve oped it will be seen t at the type-disks a and b each have all the letters of the alphabet thereon, while the type-disks d, e and f "each have the ten digits only thereon. Although this arrangement necessitates the use of twent -six type on each of the type-disks a and yet this will not necessarily result in the type-disks the platen'or be 12 is comparatively narrow so that eVEIl. though the ty e are set e-disks on because of the fact that.

closely together u on the'typeisk there i I will be no danger t at more than one letter or character at a time on each type-disk will con tact with the surface which is to be printed upon as might occur if the bed or platen were a plain surface of considerable extent. The placing of all the letters of the alphabet which the alphabet is divided between adja- I claim as new and desire to cent type-disks.

While I have herein shown my invention as embodied in a marking device such as shown in my CO-IBBDdlIl application, I do not Wish to be limited to this type of mai'king device as it will be obvious that the alining and locking device can be applied to other machines of this general character.

- Having fully described my invention, what secure by Letters latent is:

1. in a numbering or marking machine, the combination with a numbering heed having type-disks end means to adjust said type-disks, of a vibrating arm on which said numbering head is mounted, a platen toward and fromv which the numbering head moves as the arm vibrates, a movably mounted type-disk aliner, and means to cause said aliner to move toward the type-diskswhile the numbering head is moving toward the platen and to be held out engagement with the type-disk when the numbering head is in its elevated position. i

2. In a numbering or marking machine, the combination with a numbering head having a plurality of type-disks', of a platen, a vibrating arm on which said numbering head is mounted, means to vibrateseid arm thereby moving the numbering head toward from the platen, a type-diskaliner carried by the arm, and means to hold said aliner out of engagement with the type-disks when the numbering head is entirely with drawn from the platen and to move said aliner toward end. into engagement with the type-disks when the numbering head moves towerd the platen.

8. In a nmnbering or marking machine, the combination with a numbering head having it plurality of type disks, of a platen, a pivoted arm on which. said numbering head is mounted, means to turn said arm about its pivot thereby moving the numbering head toward from the platen, a type disk] aliner pivoted to the arm, a fixed support, and a link pivotally connecting said aliner to said support whereby when the numbering head is withdrawn from the platen, the oliner is held out of engagement with the type disks, while when said numbering head moves toward the platen the aliner is moved into engagement with the type disks.

the combination with a vibrating arm, of a numbering head having type-disks carried by said arm, a typo-disk alincr pivoted to the arm, a link pivotally connected to said aliner and having a sliding pivoted connection with a fixed support, and a spring connecting said link with said arm. a

5. In a numbering or marking machine, the combination with a plurality of type disks each having type thereon, of a gear rigid with each type disk, a segmental gear meshing with each of the first named ears, the teeth on said gears having such re.ation to the type on the type disk that the ad-. yancin g of each gear for the distance of one tooth will advance the type disk the dis will advance the type disk the distance of one type and. a friction di ice for each type disk engaging the teeth of; the segmental gear 'for said type disk.

In testin-iony whereof, i have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

GEORGE H. LANG.

Witnesses:

LOUIS 6. SMITH, BERTHA F. Henson.

ins; of each gear for the distance of one tooth 4. in a numbering or marking machine,

tance of one type, and o, friction device for 

